Context

The following story is by guest author Frank Taylor. If you enjoy this story, you can find Frank on Twitter at @EverDarkX, or check out his blog on Tumbler: theeverdark.tumblr.com.

When Joe Vinzetti first saw the grisly scene he thought his lunch might make a return appearance. Thinking back on his past tenure, he could remember seeing some pretty awful stuff, but this was a whole new level of disgusting. “They really don’t pay me enough for this,” he thought for what seemed like the millionth time. He turned and saw Steve Rider putting on latex gloves as he approached. Vinzetti was already wearing his own.

“I hope you haven’t eaten recently.” Vinzetti told Rider by way of greeting.

“Nah, you know I can’t eat on the job. Never know what your gonna see. Right?”

“Yeah. This is a doozy too.”

“No shit?”

Vinzetti laughed, “Yeah. No shit.”

The two men stood together and gazed down at the atrocity before them. The reality of what they were dealing with was slowly sinking in for Rider. When he’d gotten the call he thought it would be bad…but not like this. This was horrible, possibly inhuman.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Rider asked.

“Well, yeah,” Vinzetti replied slowly. “I mean, not exactly like this, but similar stuff.” Vinzetti had forgotten that Rider was still in his first year on the job. Vinzetti himself was going on 7 years and had thought he’d seen it all.

“You know, I once found a chicken’s head in a mess like this.”

Rider stared at Vinzetti in disbelief. “A chicken’s head?”

“Yep.”

“The whole thing?”

“Beak and all,” Vinzetti smiled.

“Were the feathers still on?”

“No. No feathers.” He paused then added, “Feathers would’ve been weird though.” Both men looked at each other for a moment then burst out laughing.

“What was it doing there?” Rider asked.

Vinzetti shrugged. “Don’t know. We never found out.”

The radio on Vinzetti’s belt blared to life. “Vinzetti?” He pulled the radio and depressed the button. “Go ahead.”

“Is Rider there with you?”

“Yes. He just arrived.”

“Good. Now listen, I don’t want you guys making a bigger mess than there already is. Just do what you need to do and get out of there. I have other things for you to attend to.”

Vinzetti was incredulous. “Sir, don’t you think this is of prime importance right now? We need to make sure we don’t miss anything here. I’m sure those other matters can wait.”

“I’m not saying that what you’re working on isn’t big. Just do your job and move on. The world keeps spinning.”

“That’s true,” Vinzetti thought. “The world does keep spinning, and it’s starting to make me dizzy.” He said “Copy,” into the radio, and returned it to his belt.

The two janitors looked at the toilet stall in front of them and both heaved a world weary sigh.